Partnership

Chemicals risk assessment (PARC)

Chemicals risk assessment (PARC)

Partnership website: https://www.eu-parc.eu/

PARC aims to develop next-generation chemical risk assessment to protect human health and the environment. PARC is a Partneship based on in-kind contributions of the participating partners & has no open calls. Flanders participates actively.

PARC was launched in May 2022. The partnership aims to establish an EU-wide research and innovation programme supporting the EU and national chemical risk assessment/management authorities and processes with new data, knowledge, methods and skills to address current, emerging and novel chemical safety challenges.

In line with the Green Deal’s zero-pollution ambition for a toxic free environment, and the Chemical Strategy for Sustainability the partnership will facilitate the transition to the next generation of risk assessment to better protect human health and the environment.

Core activities of the Horizon 2020 European Joint Programme HBM4EU will be pursued under PARC in the wider context of chemical risk assessment. 

News & Events

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For information on upcoming events, follow this link.

Key figures

  • PARC involves close to 200 institutions working in the areas of the environment or public health from 28 countries and three EU authorities
  • PARC has a total funding volume of €400 million for the next seven years, 50% funded by the European Union and 50% by Member States
  • 57 projects started in the first year of PARC

Participation Flanders

VITO plays a prominent role as member of the governing board of the partnership & as co-lead PARC's work package 7 'FAIR data'. The partnership website indicates that 'WP7 will strengthen exchange and reuse of research and regulatory data. For this, WP7 will interact with all the WPs to facilitate the access, storage and analysis of data, and the interfacing with the modelling and analysis tools developed by the other WPs. It will work on data and metadata harmonisation as well as on the  FAIR data policies. Furthermore, it will develop innovative tools for analysing increasing amounts of data and their uncertainty. This WP is co-led by VITO (Belgium) and UOB (United Kingdom).' Find out more here.

There are several other Flemish organisations involved as affiliated enitities: Ghent University; Flanders Research Institute for Agriculture, Fisheries & Food (ILVO); Provincial Insistute of Hygiene (Provincie Antwerpen); University of Antwerp; Public Waste Agency of Flanders (OVAM); University of Leuven; Hasselt University; Flemish Department for the Environment & Spacial Planning; Free University of Brussels

Objectives

  • Develop the scientific skills needed to address current and future challenges in chemical safety

  • Provide new data, methods and innovative tools to those responsible for assessing and managing the risks of chemical exposure

  • Strengthen the networks which bring together actors specialised in the different scientific fields contributing to risk assessment

Key documents

Contact

Commission services: RTD-E3-CHEMICALS-MATERIALS@ec.europa.eu

Partnership - Contact | Parc (eu-parc.eu)Parc@anses.fr

What are partnerships?

Partnerships group the EC and private and/or public partners, to coordinate and streamline the research & innovation initiatives and funding in some selected key domains.

How to use partnerships?

  • orientation
    Partnerships publish strategic documents, e.g. outlining the main research and innovation challenges or key focus points.
  • networking
    Partnerships often organise events, such as info days, brokerage events, etc. Meet potential partners and learn about the nuances that are not visible in the official documents.
  • ecosystem analysis
    Partnerships typically have an advisory board, and publish impact studies of previous actions. These are good sources of information to uncover the main R&D&I players in the domain.
  • steering the agenda
    Partnerships collaborate with the EC on outlining the strategy and the future funding opportunities in their domain, based on input from industry, academia, and other stakeholders.

Testimonial

image of Miricle - Mine Risk Clearance for Europe

Miricle - Mine Risk Clearance for Europe

The Miricle project, ‘Mine Risk Clearance for Europe’, obtained funding under the European Defence Industrial Development programme call ‘Underwater control contributing to resilience at sea’. The main objective of the project was to achieve a European and sovereign capacity in future mine warfare and create a path for the next generation ‘made in Europe’ countermeasure solutions. In order to realise this objective, Miricle addressed various stages: studies, design, prototyping and testing. These stages inter alia included the successful testing of an XL Unmanned Underwater Vehicle, a protototyped mine disposal system and multiple innovative systems to detect buried mines. Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ), was one of the five Belgian partners in the consortium. Within the project, VLIZ was able to forward its research on the acoustic imaging of the seabed to spatially map and visualize buried structures and objects - in this case buried mines - in the highest possible detail. VLIZ also led the work on ‘Port and Offshore Testing’, building on the expertise of the institute in the field of marine operations and technology.